The first German to be converted to the LDS Church was an immigrant to the USA named Jakob Zundel in 1836. Although one British Mormon convert had briefly worked in Germany, the first official of the church to arrive in Germany was Orson Hyde on 27 June 1841 as part of his journey to Palestine. He was delayed in Frankfurt by a visa problem and began to learn German. When he returned to Germany on his trip back from Palestine, he spent 30 January to August 1842 in Regensburg and wrote "Ein Ruf aus der Wüste" whilst he was there. It was published in Frankfurt and was the first LDS Church publication in the German language. The first converts were baptized in Germany in 1851. Brigham Young sent Daniel Carn to establish the first German mission in 1852 which he did in Hamburg. Carn also oversaw the publication of a German language version of the Book of Mormon which was published in Hamburg 25 May 1852. He was eventually banished from Hamburg, then a sovereign state, due to his attempts to convert Germans to Mormonism but he continued to prostelyse Germans in the then Danish territory of Schleswig-Holstein. Most early converts emigrated to the United States and, by 1854, the short-lived Hamburg branch was dissolved. Church involvement in Germany resumed in 1860, but was limited due to persecution which continued until World War I. After World War I, the government became more tolerant of religious freedom, and the church received substantial growth. In the first half of the 20th century Germany had more converts to Mormonism than any other non-English speaking country. By 1925 there were 6,125 members in the German-Austrian Mission, and 5,305 members in the Swiss-German Mission. The first German LDS meeting house was built in 1929 in Selbongen, East Prussia. 13,402 Mormons lived in the West German and East German Missions in 1939; at least 996 members were killed during World War II, including more than 400 adult men, about 10% of priesthood holders. Under the Nazi Government of 1933 - 1945, no Mormon congregation was stopped from worshipping and few individual Mormons were persecuted. Gestapo agents silently attended services, likely investigating neighbors' complaints of seditious activities, but no punishment came to the church. An estimated 3-5% of adult male members joined the Nazi Party—required of state employees—and speakers avoided criticizing the government or, after the German declaration of war against the United States, emphasizing the church's relationship with that country. The government ordered the church to avoid preaching about "Jewish" topics like "Zion" and "Israel", so leaders told members to not sing hymns with such words. An American Mormon student who attended a speech by Adolf Hitler in 1930 wrote of how "the greatest orator I had ever heard" transfixed him and thousands of others. After recovering from the speech in his hotel room and briefly meeting "the would-be Dictator of Germany" himself, the visitor predicted that "Whether for good or evil", Hitler's "dominating, compelling" personality would be ... a power that would be felt". After Hitler took power, American Mormon missionaries' views of the government during the 1930s varied. While also praising Hitler's oratory skill and approving of his unifying a politically divided country, they saw arrests of dissidents, enforcement of Nazi eugenics, and widespread fear of the regime. The Nuremberg Laws increased access to and interest in genealogical records, and some saw the monthly eintopf as similar to Fast Sunday, but mandatory Hitler Youth membership ended most Mormon auxiliary organizations for young people. However, there was still opposition towards Nazism within the LDS - Helmuth Hübener ended up being beheaded for anti-Nazi activities, and his colleague Karl-Heinz Schnibbe spent five years in a camp for his part. Hübener was the youngest opponent of the Third Reich to be sentenced to death by the infamous SpecialPeople's Court and executed. Following World War II, members of the church in Germany found themselves divided among two nations. Members continued to maintain contact with the church in the west. In the fall of 1961 three stakes were created in Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. In 1982, the Freiberg German Democratic Republic Stake was created. On June 19, 1985, the Freiberg GDR Temple was dedicated. It is the only temple to have been constructed in what was a communist bloc country. In 1987, the Frankfurt, West Germany Temple was dedicated.
